CMS Higgs boson search results from 2010-2011 data samples

A typical candidate event including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by dashed yellow lines and red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. [ See more event display images. ]

This week the CMS collaboration will publish the results of its search for the Higgs boson that were presented at CERN in December 2011 [1].

Nine papers will be submitted for publication using the entire data sample of proton-proton collisions collected up to the end of 2011. These data amount to 4.7 fb-1 of integrated luminosity [2]. Eight out of the nine papers discuss the individual analyses of a number of predicted Higgs decay channels. These papers include some improvements in the analyses, most notably in the photon pair decay channel [3].

The ninth paper, submitted today simultaneously with a similar paper by the ATLAS collaboration, presents the combined result of the individual channels [4].

The significance of the largest excess (at 124 GeV) has increased slightly to 2.1 standard deviations [5]. There is no substantive change in our conclusions: the question of the existence of the Standard Model Higgs boson can only be resolved with the collection of more data during 2012.